DURHAM — Duke has become a long shot to claim part of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title.

Now holding on to second place could be a chore for the Blue Devils.

Miami, which has secured the top seed for the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, can claim its first outright championship tonight by defeating Duke in a matchup of top-5 teams on the national level.

“Miami has been the best team in the league this year,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of the Hurricanes, who have 10 road victories this season.

If the Blue Devils fail to win in this rematch, they might not even have sole possession of second place in the ACC by the end of the weekend.

All ACC teams have three regular-season games remaining.

Duke is coming off Thursday’s late-night 73-68 loss at Virginia. Miami’s last road venture resulted in a 15-point setback at Wake Forest.

That gave Duke, which held the No. 1 ranking when it was blasted 90-63 by Miami on Jan. 23, a glimmer of hope of notching the regular-season league title.

“I’m not surprised when anyone loses,” Krzyzewski said. “People lose because people are playing good teams and we have a good league. To me, the story about them is how much they’ve won, not that they’ve lost a game. They’ve had a terrific year, just a sensational year.”

Even after last Saturday’s upset loss at Wake Forest, Miami was in good position. Of its last four games, only tonight’s assignment comes on the road. The other three were set for home against teams in the lower part of the ACC standings, already defeating Virginia Tech and next week’s games against Georgia Tech and Clemson.

Duke is in the middle of a stretch of three games in six nights.

“Scheduling-wise, it has been a very weird month for our basketball team regarding preparation and other teams’ preparation for you,” Krzyzewski said at the start of the week. “This week is a difficult one. We won’t get a good preparation day on Friday, then we play on Saturday.”

Duke forward Ryan Kelly, who hasn’t played since early January because of a foot injury, was in uniform and took part in warm-ups at Virginia. His status for tonight is unknown — at least to the public.

“They’re playing great without Ryan Kelly,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “If he comes back, that’s just another weapon in their arsenal. … Ryan is a terrific player, and I’d be very, very happy for the young man if he’s able to get back and play. It’s his senior year, and he deserves every opportunity to play at this time of the year.”

-- Krzyzewski has won 878 games as Duke’s coach, one short of the 879 won by Dean Smith as North Carolina’s coach. They rank second and third all-time among Division I men’s coaches for victories at one school behind Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (911).

Tip-off

Who: No. 5 Miami (23-4, 14-1) at No. 3 Duke (24-4, 11-4)

When: 6 tonight (ESPN)

Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham

Series: Duke leads 15-4, though Miami won 90-63 on Jan. 23 at Coral Gables, Fla. Miami has won the last two meetings, winning in overtime last season in Durham.